Few people ever expect to have to deal with a public relations (PR) crisis until they are in the throes of one. To improve your organization’s ability to handle a PR crisis, plan your response beforehand. Consider the following four suggestions when planning your company’s crisis response:

  1. Create a crisis communication team who will be responsible for creating and executing the crisis response and managing the situation as it unfolds.
  2. Prepare a company fact sheet, listing information about your company to hand out if a crisis occurs.
  3. If a crisis occurs, do not wait too long to go public with any problem that affects your customers.
  4. Encourage company leaders and the crisis response team to think twice about the tone of any response they put out.